Nuggets laying groundwork to re-sign Nene

Masai Ujiri heard from seemingly every agent except Jerry Maguire on Wednesday, the first day NBA executives could speak with player representatives. Free-agency talks have begun, and Ujiri's first priority is re-signing a certain Brazilian big man.

"We want Nene back," said Ujiri, who isn't targeting any other big-name big men in free agency.

And if the Nuggets don't re-sign the Brazilian big man?

"We're going to give our young big guys a chance," Ujiri said in reference to Timofey Mozgov, Kenneth Faried and Kosta Koufos. "I was studying the free-agent class. We want to be smart here; we want to make the right decisions. Are we going to go out and do anything crazy? I don't think so. These young guys are going to play. They'll get the opportunity. They'll play hard and compete."

Now, it's not like there are a bunch of Bill Russells in free agency. Besides Nene, who has spent his entire career with Denver, there are guys such as Tyson Chandler, Marc Gasol and DeAndre Jordan, who are quality players but not franchise players.

So, Ujiri began talks with Nene's representatives Wednesday hoping to lay the groundwork to get him signed. Players can't sign with teams until Dec. 9, the same day training camps will open for this 66-game season. Players can, however, begin working out at Pepsi Center today.

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Denver can offer Nene a fifth contractual season — other teams can't — and the Nuggets also have a bunch of cap space, about $26 million, if they don't bring back Nene, Arron Afflalo and Wilson Chandler. Nene has already opted out of his contract for this season (more than $11 million) and turned down a four-year, $50-million offer from the Nuggets last summer. So he will, as he said earlier this week, "weigh options" and look at how much teams such as Indiana, Houston and New Jersey might want to spend. Nene has said he wants to play for a title contender.

"We'll keep talking and see how that goes," Ujiri said. "I think he wants to test it, and we respect that. We respect what he's doing; we respect Nene as a player. And we feel we're doing our best to get him back here."

As for other roster moves, Ujiri said he is "very optimistic" about locking down Afflalo, a shooting guard and restricted free agent who is a favorite of coach George Karl. Ujiri said he hasn't been told definitely that Chandler, a restricted free agent, will remain in China, but he said that "generally the rule around the league is those guys play until the end of the season."

The Chinese regular season ends in mid-February, but playoffs extend into March. As for guard J.R. Smith, a source said that he might be able to get out of his contract with a Chinese team after numerous run-ins with team officials. That decision is up to the Chinese Basketball Association. If Smith is let go, he will be an unrestricted free agent and already has numerous suitors, including Chicago.

The big buzz around the league is the amnesty rule, which will be part of the new collective bargaining agreement. Once during the tenure of the new agreement (at minimum six seasons), a team can cut a player from its roster for purposes of taking that money off the team's salary cap number. The team still has to pay the player.

Al Harrington's contract ($6.2 million this season, $27 million over four) would be a possible contract to consider. Ujiri wouldn't speak publicly about this, but it's possible that with all of Denver's cap space, the team won't utilize the amnesty rule this season.

One other business move would be the re-signing of well-liked reserve Gary Forbes. The undrafted rookie played some significant minutes last season. Forbes is an unrestricted free agent but said "the feeling I got" from the Nuggets was that they would bring him back.

"I wouldn't want it anyway," the guard/forward said. "That's the team that took a chance on me when no one else did."

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